Man charged with aggravated battery for alleged role in New Haven tavern violence

News-Sentinel staff reports

Friday, November 15, 2013 - 6:03 am

A Fort Wayne man faces a felony charge for his alleged role in an incident that left a man with facial fractures and dental trauma.

Zachary T. Joley is charged with Class B aggravated battery, according to documents filed Thursday in Allen Superior Court. The alleged incident took place around 2:56 a.m. Sept. 14, near Carl's Tavern in New Haven. Officers from the New Haven Police Department were dispatched there to investigate a report of a fight in progress; responders were told by the owner of the tavern that the fight had started outside of the side door, according to the probable-cause affidavit filed in the case.

The probable-cause affidavit states there were three people involved in the fight, but the disturbance ceased when the individuals involved began to leave. However, a second altercation erupted in the back parking lot of the tavern, with one officer spotting a man "bleeding profusely from the face."

The police officers were told that some individuals involved in the altercation had left in a vehicle, and the officers were given a license plate number.

An investigator assigned to the case reviewed security camera footage provided by the tavern and, according to the affidavit, that footage shows Zachary Joley inside the bar with three other people. The camera footage allegedly shows Joley involved in the initial altercation at the side door along with two others, while another security camera's footage allegedly shows Joley in the back parking lot with four others.

That footage shows two women being struck and the owner of the bar heading to the lot to stop the altercation, while another man went with the bar owner to assist.

Security camera footage, according to the affidavit, allegedly shows that man being struck on the head by Joley, with the man being knocked to the ground. The investigator was told that the man was rendered unconscious, sustained several facial fractures and also lost several teeth.

The affidavit states that Joley was identified in a photo array as the person who struck the man, while Joley declined to be interviewed by the investigator. A warrant for Joley's arrest was ordered to be issued, with bond to be set at $10,000.